In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, we, the inventors, typically hybridize a large number of peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. We also grow a lesser number of open pollinated seeds of each of these fruits. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of plum tree, which has been denominated varietally as ‘Plumcandy XII’.
During a typical blooming season we isolate as seed parents both individual and groups of different plum trees by covering them with screen houses. A hive of bees is placed inside each such house, and bouquets to provide pollen from different plum, apricot, and interspecific hybrid trees are placed in buckets near the trees approximately every two days for the duration of the bloom. During 2007 one such house containing ‘September Yummy’ plum tree (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 14,220) was crossed by us in this manner. To pollinate this plum tree, we selected bouquets from several sources of plum trees without keeping specific written details. Upon reaching maturity the fruit from this plum tree was harvested, and the seeds were removed, cracked, stratified and germinated as a group with the label “H12”. They were grown as seedlings on their own root in our greenhouse and upon reaching dormancy transplanted to a cultivated area of our experimental orchard located near Le Grand, Calif. in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). During the summer of 2011 the claimed variety was selected by us as a single plant from the group of seedlings described above. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of plum tree, we asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting in the experimental orchard described above, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original tree in all respects. The reproduction of the variety included the use of ‘Nemaguard’ (unpatented) rootstock upon which the present variety was compatible and true to type.
The present variety is most similar to its seed parent, ‘September Yummy’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 14,220) plum, by having a large, vigorous, and very productive tree, by blooming in the mid to late season, by being self-unfruitful, and by producing plums that are fairly globose in shape, nearly full red in skin color, very good in flavor, juicy, and firm in texture, but is distinguished therefrom by producing plums that are much larger in size, by having full yellow flesh color without red bleeding near the skin, and that ripen about twenty days later.
The present variety is also similar to ‘Latesweet XX’ interspecific tree (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 23,740), by being self-unfruitful, by blooming in the mid to late season, and by producing fruit that is full red in skin color, yellow in flesh color, firm in texture, juicy, freestone in type, and sweet in flavor, but is distinguished therefrom by producing fruit that is much larger in size, that is globose instead of oblate in shape, and that matures about fifteen days earlier.